BBC Trust: iPlayer On Linux And Mac A Must

The Open Source Consortium (OSC), the organisation leading the charge to make the BBC iPlayer open to all platforms, not just Microsoft Windows, met with the BBC Trust yesterday to find that there was a lot of agreement in their ambitions.

Speaking to Mark Taylor of the OSC straight after the BBC Trust meeting, I learnt that The Trust had declared that they “share the vision” of the OSC. Not surprisingly the OSC representatives felt very buoyant but the very positive meeting.

To that end, both the OSC and the BBC Trust will be releasing press statements outlining their common ground and explicitly naming Linux as a platform to be supported.

The Trust went as far as saying that it would insist on platform neutrality. Very encouraging, but it was unclear when that would be. It’s clearly not going to be before the iPlayer wide beta release planned for Friday.

We were somewhat surprised to hear that the BBC Trust had legal representation at the meeting. A sure sign that they were taking it very seriously, but what was unclear was for whose protection?

Next steps
The Trust offered to introduce the OSC to the BBC Management, something the OSC were pleased to accept.

The date of the meeting has yet to be fixed, but it’s worth noting that the call from The BBC Trust to meet came the day following the OSC’s meeting with Ofcom.

This whole piece was written on a BlackBerry Curve. Surprising that it’s possible on such a small keyboard, and you know what? It wasn’t too bad an experience either.